This 6ft 2in smoothie with the Scrabble score name

Last updated at 09:21 26 April 2005

All Right, don't all shout at once. Who wants to be the local MP for that easy-going, uncomplaining flower, Prince Philip? On the streets of a soggy Windsor yesterday Adam Afriyie, Conservative candidate for Windsor, declared that he was greased up and ready for the task, should he be called to serve.

Barring disaster Mr Afriyie, a 39-year-old, half-Ghanaian computer millionaire, will on May 5 become the Tories' first black MP. Amazing, isn't it? Why on earth did it take so long?

As we splodged through the puddles of Eton Wick yesterday Mr Afriyie dabbed the rain off his cream designer mackintosh, grabbed the hands of any residents who answered their doorbells, and quietly voiced support for Michael Howard's anti-immigration campaign.

Conditions were foul, drainpipes gurgling, a scooter whizzing past and throwing up a net curtain of spray. But the few souls who came to their front doors and peered at him through the downpour seemed pretty well disposed to the 6ft 2in smoothie with the Scrabble-score name. We were in a Labour ward, too.

'Seems nice, lots of energy,' said Jack Young, 86, a retired greengrocer. Pauline Egan wanted details about the Tories' proposed cut in stamp duty because her 30-something daughter was about to buy a house. Mr Afriyie took her number and promised her a return call with answers.

Some-time Labour voter Christine Harland, retired, and Mawbury Mitchell, 83, thought Mr Afriyie 'sincere'. Mrs Harland, standing at her front door on ten bare, elegant toes, was 'disgusted' by Tony Blair. 'I certainly don't trust Brown, either,' she cried. Windsor is not a marginal. Some wards have 'more Bentley Turbos than bus stops' (A. Afriyie). At the last election it was won by 8,889 votes by the Tories' Michael Trend, who later excelled himself in an expenses fiddle.

Mr Trend being toast, the opportunity to represent residents from the Queen downwards fell to Mr Afriyie.

It has been quite a journey since his days at Oliver Goldsmith's, the primary school in Peckham later attended by poor Damilola Taylor. The last high-profile black guy to stand for the Tories was John Taylor in Cheltenham, who was rejected by Mr Nasties in 1992.

Divorced, London-reared Mr Afriyie, who proves distinctly chary when asked about his family life, has been treating the place as a swing seat since he became candidate two years ago. He reckons that he and his team of soggyshoed helpers have visited 25,000 of the seat's 43,000 dwellings.

He has certainly developed an impressive technique when pushing leaflets through letterboxes. 'You never know when there's a guard dog on the other side,' he says, citing the case of a Tory in Bournemouth who had to be stretchered off to hospital after having his hand savaged by a hungry terrier.

These dogs can certainly be devils. One of the women in Mr Afriyie's campaign team was almost gnawed yesterday even though the letter box was four feet off the ground.

The Royal Family are not the only celebrated locals. Sir Elton John is another Windsor constituent, as is Gary Lineker. The seat includes Legoland, Ascot racecourse and some parts of Slough.

Big issues locally are urban development, anti-social drinking (no, not Prince Harry) and Prince Philip's favourite - aircraft noise. Mr Afriyie can bang on for ages about aircraft noise, so long that one almost longs for the ear-shattering din of a jumbo jet.

So far, say his campaigners, only two voters have been racist about Mr Afriyie's colour. He himself seems completely unfazed about it. As for Conservative immigration policy, he avers: 'It's nothing to do with "we hate foreigners". People just feel that Blair's government is not taking care of immigration. It's the pace of change.

'First and second generation Asians in this seat feel very British. But Mr Blair's policies on immigration mean that some people look at them and say, wrongly, "It's your fault".'